Laviolette chose to keep the K’Andre Miller-Borgen duo together, then opted to keep Braden Schneider on the third pair, partnering him with Zac Jones, who entered the lineup. Laviolette said the familiarity Jones and Schneider have from playing with each other so much over the past few seasons played a part in his thinking.

Zac Jones is poised to step back into the Blueshirts' lineup, which will feature reshuffled D pairs and maybe even a five-forward power play.

K’Andre Miller landed on injured reserve in December with an upper-body injury before returning later that month, too — and he also exited Tuesday’s game. Ryan Lindgren, Fox’s partner on the Blueshirts’ top pairing, missed the start of the season.

A whole book could be written about the Rangers’ 2024-25 season considering all that has happened already, but new chapters just keep getting added.

The Rangers emerged from the trade deadline in better shape than before, but there is more hard work to be done.

K’Andre Miller left with a lower-body injury after only two second-period shifts, with Adam Fox following him ... Braden Schneider and Urho Vaakanainen. "I thought they were all solid.

It also whetted his appetite for more best-on-best hockey. Miro Heiskanen, Rasmus Ristolainen and Jani Hakanpää all missed the 4 Nations to injury, so competition for the Finnish Olympic roster will be more fierce. Vaakanainen acquitted himself well enough to at least be on the bubble, though.